Pain is sometimes defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. The diagnosis and treatment of pain is time consuming and difficult. More than 80 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and the cost to society of treating pain and the consequences of pain is staggering.
Very little training in the management of chronic pain is provided by medical schools. Despite such lack of formal training programs, pain management is emerging as an important medical specialty. However, while pain management specialists now exist, pain management expertise is not generally available to general practitioners. Yet according to the American Academy of Pain Management, pain specialists spend more than half of their time on therapy that would be better performed by primary care physicians. In this age of constantly escalating health care costs, it is important to increase the competency of health care providers. The most cost-effective way of doing this is not to send health care workers back to school, but to provide them with better tools to do their work.
Most physician are faced with the daily challenge of treating acute and chronic pain. The difficulties of managing chronic pain can lead to both physician and patient frustration. One of the most severe impediments to pain management is the problem of patient noncompliance with physician instructions. Even when well-designed treatment plans are followed, pain patients frequently return to their physician unsatisfied with their treatment effectiveness, or take it upon themselves to reduce their compliance with a prescribed treatment because of adverse side-effects. While such side-effects are often amenable to simple drug titration, such titration may be delayed or not even occur because care providers are too busy to provide close patient follow-up. Out of communication with a care provider, the pain patient may prematurely discontinue or otherwise modify therapy. All too often the patient returns for a follow-up visit with a prescribed treatment plan not having received a fair trial, resulting in precious time wasted.
Accordingly, the inventor has determined that there is a need for providing pain management tools to primary care physicians that also provide feedback about patient compliance. It would also be desirable if the pain management tools provide for adjusting prescribed treatment plans based on patient response. The present invention provides such tools.